Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has launched a criminal investigation to determine what role, if any, OpenAI's ChatGPT may have played in several violent crimes committed in the state. The action, reported by Gizmodo, expands existing inquiries to specifically examine interactions with the chatbot.
Which incidents are under scrutiny
The expanded probe relates in part to a shooting at Florida State University in April 2025, in which two people were killed and six were injured. That shooting was already the subject of an investigation; Attorney General Uthmeier now seeks to establish whether OpenAI bears any responsibility for conduct that led to violence.
A more recent case concerns an incident at the University of South Florida in early April 2026. According to reporting by Axios, authorities were notified on April 16 that two students were missing; one was found dead shortly thereafter and the other is also believed to have died. Officials are treating the roommates' fellow student, Hisham Abugharbieh, as a suspect in the deaths.
Alleged interactions with ChatGPT
Reports say that Abugharbieh allegedly asked ChatGPT on April 13 what would happen if a body were placed in a black garbage bag and then put into a container. A few days later, he reportedly asked the AI whether Apple could determine that a new iPhone user was the same person as a previous user. It is not yet known exactly how much information the suspected perpetrator shared with the chatbot or what specific responses he received.
In the Florida State University shooting case, an attorney for one of the victims said the attacker "communicated continuously" with OpenAI's chatbot and claimed the software may have provided advice on how to commit the attacks. Those statements helped prompt the attorney general to broaden the investigation to consider the chatbot's role more generally.
OpenAI response and legal implications
OpenAI has said it is cooperating with authorities in the investigations. The Attorney General's inquiry aims to explore, from a criminal-law perspective, whether a service provider or platform can be held responsible when AI-generated information or interactions are implicated in violent crimes.
This probe could set an important precedent for how regulators and prosecutors treat generative AI systems and platform liability in cases involving violence, and its outcome may influence future legal and regulatory approaches toward OpenAI and similar services.
